This invention is directed to providing a conscious patient who is undergoing a painful, uncomfortable or otherwise frightening (anxiety-inspiring) medical or surgical procedure, or who is suffering from post-procedural or other pain or discomfort, with safe, effective and cost-effective relief from such pain and/or anxiety. Focuses of the invention include, but are not limited to, enabling the provision of sedation (inducement of a state of calm), analgesia (insensitivity to pain) and/or amnesia to a conscious patient (sometimes referred to collectively as “conscious sedation”) by a nonanesthetist practitioner, i.e., a physician or other clinician who is not an anesthesiologist (M.D.A.) or certified nurse anesthetist (C.R.N.A.), in a manner that is safe, effective and cost-effective; the provision of same to patients in ambulatory settings such as hospital laboratories, ambulatory surgical centers, and physician's offices; and the provision of patient post-operative or other pain relief in remote medical care locations or in home care environments. To those ends, the invention mechanically integrates through physical proximity and incorporation into an overall structural system and electronically integrates through conservative, decision-making software management, the delivery of one or more sedative, analgesic or amnestic drugs to the patient with the electronic monitoring of one or more patient physiological conditions.
In traditional operating rooms, anesthesiologists provide patients relief from pain, fear and physiological stress by providing general anesthesia. “Anesthesia” is typically used (and is so used herein) interchangeably with the state of “unconsciousness.” Over a billion painful and anxiety-inspiring medical and surgical procedures, however, are performed worldwide each year without anesthesia. Thus, outside the practice of anesthesiology there are currently a large number of patients who, while conscious, undergo medical or surgical procedures that produce considerable pain, profound anxiety, and/or physiological stress. Such medical or surgical procedures are often performed by procedural physicians (nonanesthetists) in hospital laboratories, in physicians' offices, and in ambulatory surgical centers. For example, physician specialists perform painful procedures on conscious patients such as pacemaker placement, colonoscopies, various radiological procedures, microlaparoscopy, fracture reduction, wound dressing changes in burn units, and central and arterial catheter insertion in pediatric patients, in hospital laboratory settings. Primary care physicians perform such procedures as flexible sigmoidoscopies, laceration repairs, bone marrow biopsies and other procedures in physicians' offices. Many surgical specialists perform painful procedures such as anterior segment repairs by ophthalmologists, plastic procedures by cosmetic surgeons, foreign body removal, transurethral procedures, incisions of neck and axilla nodes, and breast biopsies in their offices or in ambulatory surgical centers. The needs of patients for safe and effective pain and anxiety relief during and after such procedures are currently unmet.
Conscious sedation techniques currently available for use by procedural physicians (nonanesthetists) during medical or surgical procedures such as those described above include sedatives and opioids given orally, rectally or intra-muscularly; sedatives and analgesics administered intravenously; and local anesthetics. Often, however, such techniques are less than satisfactory.
In the case of oral, rectal or intra-muscular administration of sedatives and opioids by procedural physicians during the provision of conscious sedation, there are currently no effective means available to assure that the effects of those drugs can be readily controlled to meet patient need. This is due in part to the variable interval between administration and the onset and dissipation of drug effect. Unreliable sedation and analgesia can result because of mismatches between the dosage administered and the patient's needs which can vary depending on the condition of the patient and the type of procedure performed. Such administration of sedation can also produce an unconscious patient at risk for developing airway obstruction, emesis with pulmonary aspiration or cardiovascular instability. To attempt to avoid these complications, procedural physicians often administer sedatives and analgesics sparingly. This may reduce the risk of major complications, but may also mean that few patients receive adequate relief from pain and/or anxiety during medical and surgical procedures outside the practice of anesthesiology.
The use of intravenous administration of sedatives and analgesics to conscious patients by procedural physicians in settings such as hospital laboratories, physicians' offices and other ambulatory settings is also less than satisfactory. With respect to intravenous bolus administration, plasma concentrations vary considerably when drugs are injected directly into the blood stream. This can result in initially excessive (potentially toxic) levels followed by sub-therapeutic concentrations. Although intravenously administered drugs can be titrated to the patient's need, doing so safely and effectively usually requires the full-time attention of a trained care giver, e.g., an anesthesiologist. Costs and scheduling difficulties among other things typically preclude this option.
Due to the difficulties described above involving administration of sedatives and opioids, many procedural physicians rely on local anesthetics for pain relief. However, local anesthetics alone usually provide inadequate analgesia (insensitivity to pain) for most medical and surgical procedures and the injections themselves are often relatively painful.
In short, current methods commonly available to procedural physicians for providing effective pain relief to conscious patients outside the practice of anesthesiology typically fall short of the objective. Moreover, there are currently no clear standards of practice for nonanesthetists to guide the relief of pain and anxiety for conscious patients. There is not adequate training for such practitioners in the diagnosis and treatment of complications that may arise or result from the provision of sedation and analgesia to conscious patients. Procedures or mechanisms for ongoing quality management of the care of conscious patients undergoing painful and anxiety-inspiring medical or surgical procedures and the devices and methods employed in that care are inadequate.
An additional focus of this invention is the electronic monitoring of a conscious patient's physiological condition during drug delivery, and the electronic management of drug delivery by conservative decision-making software that integrates and correlates drug delivery with electronic feedback values representing the patient's physiological condition, thereby ensuring safe, cost-effective, optimized care. Significantly, in many cases involving conscious sedation, the patient's physiological condition is inadequately monitored or not electronically monitored at all during drug delivery and recovery therefrom. That is, there is often no electronic monitoring of basic patient vital signs such as blood pressure, blood oxygen saturation (oximetry) nor of carbon dioxide levels in a patient's inhaled and exhaled gases (capnometry). For example, patients undergoing painful procedures in dentists' offices may receive nitrous oxide (N2O) gas to relieve pain, but that drug delivery is often not accompanied by electronic monitoring of a patient's physiological condition, and currently there are no devices available to nonanesthetists which safely and effectively integrate electronic patient monitoring with such drug delivery mechanisms.
In other circumstances involving the provision of conscious sedation and analgesia by the procedural physician, such as a cardiologist's performing a catheterization procedure in a hospital laboratory, electronic patient monitors are sometimes used, but again, there are no devices currently available to the nonanesthetist which safely and effectively integrate both mechanically (through close, physical proximity and incorporation into a structural system), and electronically (through conservative software management), electronic patient monitors with mechanisms for drug delivery.
One aspect of the invention of this application is directed to the simplification of drug delivery machines for relieving patient pain and anxiety by eliminating features of those machines that complicate the provision of patient pain and anxiety relief, and by including those features that enable nonanesthetists to provide safe, cost-effective, optimized conscious sedation and analgesia. More specifically, current anesthesia machines used by anesthesiologists to provide general anesthesia and a form of conscious sedation administered by the anesthesiologist known as “monitored anesthesia care” (MAC) include various complex features such as oxygen (O2) flush valves which are capable of providing large amounts of oxygen to the patient at excessive pressures, and carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbent material which absorbs CO2 from a patient's exhaled gases. In addition, anesthesia machines typically deliver halogenated anesthetic gases which can trigger malignant hyperthermia. Malignant hyperthermia is a rare, but highly critical condition requiring the advanced training and skills of an anesthesiologist for rapid diagnosis and therapy. The airway circuit in current anesthesia machines is circular in nature and self-contained in that the patient inhales an oxygen/anesthetic gas mixture, exhales that mixture which is then passed through CO2 absorbent material, re-inhales the filtered gas mixture (supplemented by additional anesthetic and oxygen), and repeats the process.
These aspects of anesthesia machines, among others, carry attendant risks for the patient such that anesthesia machines require operation by a professional trained through a multi-year apprenticeship (e.g., an anesthesiologist or C.R.N.A.) in detecting and correcting failure modes in the technology. For example, an oxygen flush valve can cause oxygen to enter a patient's stomach thereby causing vomiting; and carbon dioxide absorbent material can fail in which case the patient could receive too much carbon dioxide if the failure was not promptly detected and corrected. Moreover, the use of the self-contained, circular airway circuit could result in a circumstance whereby if the supply of O2 suddenly ceased, a patient would only be breathing the finite supply of oxygen with no provision for administration of additional requirements for O2 or atmospheric air. Such features, among others, make anesthesia machines unusable by nonanesthetists. Therefore, a focal point of this aspect of the invention is the simplification of a drug delivery apparatus by selecting and incorporating the appropriate features to facilitate the rendition of safe and effective conscious sedation by nonanesthetists.
Certain aspects of this invention also focus on ensuring maintenance of patient consciousness to prevent airway difficulties, including monitoring the level of patient consciousness during the delivery of one or more sedative, analgesic and/or amnestic drugs to a conscious, non-intubated, spontaneously-ventilating patient to prevent airway difficulties. For patients not intubated on a ventilator, monitoring the level of patient consciousness is important to provide information about the likelihood of depressed airway reflexes and respiratory drive to breathe, the ability to maintain a patent airway, and the likelihood of cardiovascular instability. Despite the importance of monitoring and maintaining adequate levels of consciousness in certain medical settings, there is no currently available device for ensuring maintenance of patient consciousness by integrating mechanically and electronically such monitoring of a patient's level of consciousness with a drug delivery system. The invention of this application is directed to this unmet need, as well.
This invention is also directed to providing conscious patients relief from pain and/or anxiety in a manner that is cost-effective and time efficient. Current solutions for relieving patient pain and anxiety by drug delivery and electronic monitoring of a patient's physiological condition are expensive and require a great deal of time to set-up and take down. Also, the current requirement or desire for the presence of an anesthesiologist during some medical or surgical procedures increases costs, especially if that desire requires in-patient care as opposed to care in an ambulatory setting. To the extent medical procedures are performed on conscious patients without adequate sedation and analgesia due to the current unavailability of appropriate methods and devices for providing such care (e.g., wound dressing changes in burn wards), such procedures may need to be conducted on numerous occasions, but over short periods of time (due to a patient's inability to tolerate the level of pain), as opposed to conducting a fewer number of more definitive procedures. The requirement of multiple sessions of care also typically involves increased costs. This invention addresses such cost-effectiveness concerns and provides solutions to problems such as those described.
The invention is further directed to the provision of relief from post-operative or other post-procedural pain and discomfort in remote medical care locations and home care type settings. Current devices may permit certain patients in, for example, a home care type setting, to provide themselves with an increased dosage of analgesic through the use of a patient-controlled drug delivery device, e.g., a device that permits a patient to press a button or toggle a switch and receive more analgesic (often intravenously or transdermally). This practice is sometimes called “PCA” or patient-controlled analgesia. Known commercially available PCA-type devices do not electronically integrate and conservatively manage delivery of analgesics in accord with the electronic monitoring of a patient's physiological condition. This invention focuses on this unmet need, as well.
An additional aspect of this invention is directed to the integration of a billing/information system for use with an apparatus providing sedation, analgesia and/or amnesia to conscious patients in physician's offices, hospital laboratory or other ambulatory settings or remote medical care locations. Current techniques for automated billing and invoice generating provide inadequate and inefficient methods for tracking recurring revenues derived from repeated use of medical devices such as the apparatus of this invention.
Other focuses of the invention are apparent from the below detailed description of preferred embodiments.